October 1, 2000

Well! What a set of readings! Jesus is torqued; Moses has had it!; and, you thought this election was fun! Moses has had it because he never wanted the job in the first place. He never asked to be the leader of the Israelites. In fact, he did everything he knew to get out of the job. He explained to God that he stuttered, and therefore wouldn't be the best choice, but God doesn't let him off the hook.

We all know how the Israelites got into the desert — those plagues and all those nasty things falling out of the sky. When they finally get into the desert, times got even tougher. There are questions about how they are going to eat, what kind of diet they are going to have. They have just had a big controversy over who has the power to bless people. Can just anyone go up to a group of people and say, "God's blessings be upon you." Or, do you have to have somebody who is a "cohine," somebody of the priestly caste, walk up and do as Aaron did, "Lord bless you and keep you, Lord make his face to shine upon you," etc., etc.

Just after they had made it past the first issue of blessing, Moses thought it was safe. Then up comes another controversy! This controversy is around the fact that up until now, only Moses, only Aaron, and only Miriam could speak for God. Only those three were authorized spokespersons. Now there are questions on Moses' authority.

Keep in mind, here is a leader who never wanted to be the leader anyway. He throws up his hands and says, "God, they are all yours. Kill me please; I am done! You figure this out. You can't even reason with these people anymore." This is why they are saying that at least in Egypt, we had fresh fish; we had vegetables; we had fruit, and all you give them is this manna.

Well, that's not the case. In Egypt, they had to buy everything. Remember from Sunday School, they had to buy the straw for their houses. They were in terrible shape back then, but they are idealizing their memory. It is nostalgia. They have no concept of the reality of where they are, and they have no concept of the grace that God gives them. They forgot to be thankful for where they were. They forgot their vision of where they are going. All they could remember was what was behind them — for better or for worse. And so, as things seem to happen when a vision is lost, a committee is formed. Not only that, but it's a committee of 70. Try running a meeting like that! There is a tented meeting and everybody shows up. Everybody has the answer for how God is speaking to the people; everybody has the answer. We don't know how long that meeting lasted, but we do know they never tried it again!

We do know there were two people who had enough sense to stay out of that meeting: Eldad and Medad. They had enough sense to stay out of that meeting because they knew that God had physically taken the spirit of the Lord out of Moses and cast it in everybody in the meeting, including them. They knew not to join the meeting in the tent. They had a sense of vision, a vision of a holy people. Consequently, Joshua, Moses' right-hand man, decides that they are the threat — not the people in the meeting, not everybody trying to get their own opinions out there, but these two guys are the threat. Moses disagrees.

I think Sedad, Medad and Moses were on the same wave length. Moses knows who he is; Moses is very secure in his relationship with God. Moses also knows that if God led him into this, God will lead him out of it. He knows the more people who are blessed by divine presence, the more people there are to capture a vision of what a holy people of God should be, how they should behave and where they are going.

When we baptize someone into the Episcopal Church, the priest stands and says, "Let us welcome the newly baptized," and everyone answers, "We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood." By welcoming a new Christian into our midst, we say what it means to be a member of God's family, and the most important thing that we say is that the spokesman for God is not only Moses, nor Aaron, nor Miriam, nor is it the person of Robert, or Dan, or Sean — people who bless people in God's name are those who do the work of the Kingdom. Through baptism, we are all made God's ministers. Through baptism, we are all filled with God's spirit. Through baptism, we are all empowered to interpret the vision of God.

So, what would it look like for the spirit of God to be poured out upon a community of faith? For our friends in the desert, it was the absolute turning point. From then on, the people who would be prophets in that tent came out and all shared the burden of leadership. They took on administrative roles; they took on being spokesmen for Moses, and for God, when necessary. The important thing was that the authority was delegated, and things started to happen. It was at this point, they decided that they could reach the promised land, the land of Caana, the land of promise — and so they did. It couldn't have happened without this.

What would it be like for us? Based on my very conservative estimates, if everybody took on this burden of leadership and expressed it, in just a minutia, everyone in the valley would have enough to eat for 16 years; everybody would, with just a small portion of the financial gift to this parish. If everybody gave just a few hours a week, all 23,000 children in the Desert Sands school district would have a mentor, a tutor, on a ratio of one to five. Everybody would! That's just a fraction.

In our community at St. Margaret's, we have a vision. We put it on our letterhead; we put it in the bulletin in front of you. It is stated not just by the clergy, but by everyone — "To know Christ and to make him known." We share this vision with prophets who have come before us, with martyrs and saints who have come before us, that God's spirit and God's blessing will be poured out on every human being, the dream that all of God's daughters and God's sons would prophesy. That vision comes closer to reality every time we live out our responsibility as God's household, each time we share in the priesthood of all believers. We are, you and I, ministers who bless the people, and God's prophets to proclaim justice and mercy, and then, the spirit of the Lord is poured upon us. AMEN

The The Rev. Sean Cox
seancox@stmargarets.org
1 October 2000